Servant of Shadows
=Prologue= Space Century 312.46 Location- Slinatelin: Hidden Quarters of the Shadows The Shadows watched the progress of the Shinobi they were training, keeping track of each move, each attack, each new innovation the ninja made. Anything brilliant, or excessively new and inspiring, was recorded into the archives, to be taught to the rest of the Shinobi later. The Shadows were not fools. If it would help their army of Shinobi to gain power, they would use the ideas of their servants. Though, if the idea was something that would make the Shinobi more powerful than the Shadows, the innovator was disposed of, and the idea was completely forgotten. After all, if the Shinobi grew more powerful than their masters, it would upset the natural balance of the system. The Shadows taught the Shinobi. The Shinobi carried out the Shadows' orders. The Shinobi gained new abilities, power, respect. The Shadows gained an army at their disposal, one they could use without putting their own men at risk. Of course, the Shadows were powerful enough to destroy whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. But where was the fun in a chess game, if the players simply brushed the opponents pieces off the board? No, it was much more fun using their pawns, their bishops, their knights, their rooks. The Shadows were the king, of course. But they were looking for a queen, someone else who had the sense and will to do what was necessary, to rise from Shinobi to Shadow. They had found no one yet, no one else who would do whatever they wanted to get whatever they happened to want at the time. They needed a queen. They needed... Vanda Darkflame, twelve-year-old girl, living on the planet Skrios, was mad at her father. Unrightfully so, perhaps, as he only wanted to protect her. But she didn't care about her safety. Who needed rules? Not her. So she was devising a way to get away from her father. Some way to get away from the restrictions led down by her father. She needed to leave. =Part I: Freedom= Chapter 1.1 Space Century 312.46 Location- Skrios: Colony World Vanda Darkflame sat flopped down on her couch, her cell phone held out in front of her. On other colony planets, such as Treniem, they would be sold titanium-plated nuclei-sensors, machines that literally thought for themselves. But Skrios wasn't exactly the richest colony planet branched off from the Hundred Worlds. So they had to settle for more of the old-timer stuff, like cell-phones with virtual surround sound and literal third-dimension graphics- you could see the texts of your friends floating around you. She sighed at the old technology. But it would have to do for now. At least, until she grew up and became famous, and then moved off to some other planet, perhaps one of the Hundred Worlds. Yes. Once she was famous, there would be no more colonies for her. She would go straight to one of the original worlds. For now, though, she had other things to deal with. One of those things had just jumped on her. "Hi, Vanda! It's Saturday!" Vanda groaned, and shoved her little brother off of her. "That's great. Go away." She continued to text on her cell-phone, completely ignoring her brother. Max Darkflame pouted, his lower lip jutting out. His curly brown hair seemed so different from Vanda's straight, black style that most people said they looked completely unrelated. The only thing they had in common was that they both lived in the same house, something that Vanda wished everyday wasn't true. "Well," Max said, a grin forming on his face. "I guess I'll just have to go play in your room." His brown eyes twinkled deviously as he turned around and ran straight in the direction of the stairs. Vanda hopped up off the couch, screaming at him. "Stay out of my ROOM!" She raced after the little ten year-old, going as fast as she could. She had a slim frame, blue eyes, and black hair. She was about an inch shorter than the average girl her age, but that was close enough to average height. She was the type of girl who went to school, and hung out with the popular group of girls, but wasn't unkind to the less popular people. In fact, perhaps the only person she over got mad at was Max. Vanda leaped up the last step on the stairway, seeing Max using one of his many inventions to pick the lock to her room. She growled, and launched herself onto Max. A dark figure hung from the windowsill above, watching and only letting his eyes fall into their window. His dark black hood kept his face hidden, but you could tell he was watching the Darkflame children. One in particular... Chapter 1.2 Space Century 312.46 Location- Skrios: Colony World On Skrios, it was always raining. The rain never stopped. Once the colonists had moved in, and built all their buildings, the new 'ground' they had put in stopped the rainwater from soaking into the ground. Inevitably, floods began to occur during major storms, and all the rest of the time, the water level simply rose steadily. Scientists couldn't explain where all this water was coming from; technically, there couldn't be enough water to flood the whole planet and continue to rain. It was impossible. So the scientists kept looking for ways to explain the flood, while the colonists dealt with it. They built new buildings stacked on top of their old buildings, and continued doing this until each one was at least at the height of what would've been known as a skyscraper back in the old days. Many rose much higher than this. But for right now, we'll not focus on the hover-cars and schools high above the deeps ocean. We'll be going deep below, to the very bottom of the sea's depths. To the mines. There were mines at the very bottom of the colony planet, as there happened to be mineral resources buried in the ground. People deeply in debt to someone, or a person who was simply unable to get a different job, would go down to work in the mines, digging out the cement put in about a hundred years ago, and shoveling through the ground, all the while in fear that the glass dome above them would break underneath the water pressure. Samuel Golderstien was one of the miners. His whole family had mined in the gold mines for years, going through the tunnels shoveled out decades ago to reach lower ground and find more gold. Samuel, at the age of fifteen, had been working the mines for about a year and a half now, and he had gotten used to the way things worked. He grabbed a shovel, went down with his dad, and started to move, earning the fifty coins a day. In the old days, this might have been a good salary, but nowadays, the value of things had dropped, and the worth of fifty coins nowadays is about the worth of five coins in the old days. But it was money, and it wasn't illegal, so Samuel and his father worked seven days a week. Of course, with hundreds of men all caged up in a small mining space, fights were bound to break out almost everyday. And today was the day Samuel fought his first fight. Chapter 1.3 Space Century 312.46 Location- Skrios: Colony World Sam wiped the sweat off his forehead, letting the pickaxe rest at his side. The hard work had worn him out, as it wore all the workers out, and his muscles were tired and groaning. His father had called in sick, and went down to their cave. Working in the mines was one way to display the fact that you don't have money, but living in a cave too... well, it was practically saying 'Stay away from me, you'll catch the poor disease.' Sam took it quite well, though. He moved his arms, picking the pickaxe back up to keep on gold-mining. His arms ached as he brought the rusted tool behind his head, and then, using all his strength, slammed it forward, taking an unsatisfying small chunk out of the cave wall rising in front of him. Sam lifted the axe again, ready to strike harder, when the axe hit something behind him. Sam dropped the axe and turned around quickly, worried that he had hit someone on the head. He had, but this particular person's head seemed to be all muscle and no brain. In fact, his whole body was practically just one big super muscle. "Ow." Sam winced at the glare the big miner turned on him. "Hey, puny. What was that for?" "Er... it was an accident, I swear!" The miner cracked his neck. "Oh really?" Sam saw the neck cracking motion. Suddenly he was confident. This guy was an amateur wrestler. "Yeah. Though, I'm surprised you realized I hit you. Tell me, how do the brain waves get through all that fat?" Several miners had stopped work and gathered around the two, and each one either winced or gasped at Sam's words. He was purposefully urging the muscle man on. The 'muscle man' growled, his eyes narrowing. "You say that was an accident? You'll look like an accident once Darren is through with you!" Sam raised his eyebrow. Apparently, his name was Darren. Darren let out another scream, and through a punch at Sam's face. Sam ducked underneath the wild blow, quickly letting out several jabs into Darren's stomach. Though the contact with the hard muscle hurt Sam's hand, it hurt Darren more. He stumbled back, grunting. Then the grunting turned into growling, and he jumped up into the air, aiming to land on top of Sam. Sam simply moved out of the way, realizing too late that his pickaxe was resting against the wall. Standing up straight, the rusty blade pointed straight up at Darren. Darren landed right on top of it. Chapter 1.4 Space Century 312.46 Location- Skrios: Colony World "No." Thomas Darkflame stood, daring his daughter to contradict his decision. Vanda had asked to go to a friend's party this Friday, but her father had rejected the idea, refusing to let her go to the party. "But… dad!" Vanda protested. "This is gonna be, like, the biggest party of my entire life! I NEED to go to this!" "You're not even in high school yet, and you're already in the ‘biggest thing in my entire life' phase?" Vanda stomped her foot on the stone floor of their house. "I am NOT in a phase!" "Vanda, I gave you my decision. I don't like this friend of yours, and I'm afraid there might be something bad at her party." "You worry too much!" Vanda glared straight at her father. "You just don't understand me!" "Go to school." Vanda grabbed her backpack and stormed out the door, letting out a frustrated scream. "I hate my dad," she muttered, the rain falling down on her face. She stood out at the curb, waiting for the hovercraft to come that took all the children to school. She never shivered in the rain. No one did. They were all used to it by now. The amazing times were in the winter, when it seemed as if the entire world had frozen over. The hovercraft turned the corner, coming into Vanda's view. She hefted her backpack higher up on her shoulder and sighed. It would be hard to tell Jessica that she couldn't come to her party. The craft screeched to a halt in front of Vanda, the doors shuddering open. As said before, Skrios wasn't the richest colony. All the money they made was from the mines, and those flooded too much. There wasn't very much money left for education. She stepped onto the hovercraft, smiling at all her friends. Her temper now gone, she walked around the mass of limbs (mostly legs) jutting out into the aisle, and made her way to the back of the bus, sitting with her friends. They all talked together, about the party, the concert in a month by their favorite band, and various other things. They acted sad when Vanda told them she couldn't go to the party, and after about ten seconds of "Oh, I'm so sorry, Vanda!" they returned to the daily gossip. The hovercraft slowed to a stop behind a line of buses, and opened its doors, allowing the students to exit the vehicle. Vanda walked down the slight steps of the hovercraft, coming out onto the wide skyscraper that was the school. "Great," she murmured. "Another day at school." Category:Stories Based on NPCs Category:Timeline of the Umbra Imperium